Completely Guilt Free Chocolate Mousse

     Hi everyone! 
Guess what?! I am now at a total of 4 page views!... hmm. Impressive?... I think not. Well, that's alright. Someday someone will follow me and read through all my posts and I wont have been writing these things to no one :)
     So, in my last post I gave you guys (well, there isn't really any "guys" being addressed here, I'm mostly just talking to myself :P)a borscht soup recipe. Hopefully someone will actually try it in the future but so far my guess is that no one has since I've only had 2 page views since the recipe went up. But anyways! My spirits are not dampened; hey, it sure beats writing in a diary where you KNOW (and often hope) no one will ever read whatever you're writing. 
     But in any event, *focus Morgan!* today, I thought I'd share my chocolate mousse recipe. This is basically the bare minimum of calories one can have in a dessert; however the end results are completely satisfactory. 
     It's not exactly what most people call mousse, it's actually made out of sterilized egg whites, sugar, cocoa, and whatever flavoring you'd like to compliment it. So it doesn't really end up all creamy and pudding-like, but rather... it's hard to explain. I guess, well, sort of a thicker foamy texture? No that just sounds weird. Hmm. Well I guess you'll just have to try it! I assure you its completely scrumptious. Here we go!

CHOCOLATE EGG WHITE MOUSSE

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of sterilized egg whites
-2-3 tsp of sugar (or to taste) *see note bellow*
-about 1-2 tsp of cocoa (I'm not entirely sure of that so, TO TASTE!)
-any other extracts/flavourings you'd like (Almond is good, Maple is reaaallyyy good, as well as peppermint)
*note: you can use syrups to flavor and in the place of sugar. So for example if you were doing maple flavor, just use some maple syrup instead of sugar)


Directions:
In a smallish bowl, whisk egg whites. You can start with a whisk but then its probably best to switch to a mechanical beater. Or you can just use an electric beater the whole way through (i don't have one so...). Once mixture is getting stiff, add in a  few teaspoons of sugar and continue whisking. Once the egg whites are still and can sort of hold peaks, add in the remainder of your sugar (however much you want to use), cocoa, as well as any flavourings. Mix this all in and you're done! Serve right away as it will start to separate. 
Enjoy!


If you want a completely different flavour than chocolate, just don't put in the cocoa. I'm sure just plain Vanilla is great too! It's also very good on fruit :)
It serves quite a lot, it could either be a big bowl for you, or two smaller bowls.


Nutrition: (for whole recipe)
Calories: 104
Protein:14.5 g


     So that's it :) It's really great when you're on a diet and all the desserts besides fruit out there are at least over 200 calories. Not to mention the high protein content! I'd really appreciate if anyone who tries it would leave a comment or something, It's great when you know people are actually looking at your posts. 
     Next post I might include a begginer's crochet hat pattern so come on by for that. Bye for now :)
                                                                                                   -Morgan

Borscht Soup

     Hey everyone!! Guess what?! I had one page view since last night! From someone in Germany :) Thank you person from Germany for viewing my page! Did I ever mention I'm part German? And Scottish, French, Norwegian, Italian, and something else I always forget. I just remember that in total there's seven. Sometimes I remember them all but usually one or two happen to evade my mind whenever I try to pull em up to tell someone. 
     Anyways, enough with the blabber. Good morning everyone!! I thought I'd include one of my great low calorie, vegetarian, healthy, super tasty recipes in this new post. Just so you guys know, it's not that I'm some needs-to-be-skinny obsessive person, it's just that I have some ballet competitions coming up which I do actually need to lose weight for. But that doesn't mean I can't eat yummy food! 
     So today I'll be sharing my mom's great Borscht soup recipe. It's a really popular Russian soup, and if you ask me, it is the absolute best soup in the entire world!! It mostly consists of beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes; which sorta sounds gross but I promise you, IT IS NOT.
     Here it is:
This is just a picture I found on the internet but that's pretty much what my mom's looks like too.

Ingredients:
-Beets, 4 small cubed (about 1/2" cubes)
-Carrots, 1 large cubbed
-Cabbage (i usually use white, but i think purple is fine too), 1/2 medium sliced into thin ribbons
-Potato, 2 medium cubed
-Garlic, 6 cloves crushed and chopped fine
-Large onion (yellow), sliced into thin rings
-Large tomatoes, 3 peeled and chopped
-Balsamic/red wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp
-White sugar, 1 Tbsp
-Vegetable stock seasoning, 2 cubes
-Water, 2 1/2-3 L
-Black Pepper, 1/2 tsp
-Salt, 1 tsp
-Butter, 1 tsp
-Optional: ~Fresh dill to garnish (about 1/2 cup chopped)
           ~A dollop of sour cream to serve, or you can substitute it for plain yogurt which tastes good too. I don't use it but you might want to (keep in mind that will bring the calories up a bit too, for those of your worried about that)


Instructions:
1.Combine soup stock cubes and 2 L of water in a separate bowl or pot.
2.Melt butter in a big pot on medium. Add cubed beets and carrots, stir well to coat with butter. Sautee for about 5 minutes. 
3.Add onion rings, diced tomatoes, vinegar and sugar. Add in 2 Tbsp of the soup stock you prepared in step 1. Give it a little stir. Lower heat to a bit below medium.
4.Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5.Add sliced cabbage, stir to moisten. Put lid on pot. Continue simmering for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
6.Add remainder off soup stock, potatoes, garlic, pepper, and salt. 
7.Cook at medium (do not boil!) until potatoes are tender.
8.Simmer for another 15-20 minutes on low for best flavour, or if you're really hungry you can serve now.
9.Before serving, sprinkle the optional dill, and stir a little bit to distribute the flavor. Serve, add optional dollop of sour cream.
Note: some will prefer the soup without the dill.


Serves about 6 or 7 nice big bowls.




Nutritional information: per serving
Calories: 95
Total fat: 1.3 g
Potassium: 650 mg (about 20% daily value)
Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g
Sugar: 8.5 g
Protein: 2.6 g
Vitamin A: 70%
Vitamin C: 40%


     
     And that's it! I hope you guys try it. It makes a really good hot dinner for those cold rainy days. I don't know about you but I sure get a lot of those where I live.
     Until next time :)
                                        -Morgan

Welcome :)

Hello fellow bloggers,

     I'm really pretty new to this whole blog thing; in fact this is my first time. I've always wanted a blog but I figured no one would really actually want to read my ranting on about this or that. Which could be true, I guess we'll see :P I also always thought I wouldn't have enough time or... oh what's the word... determination, to keep it up. But, here I am. Hopefully a few people or so will join me in my little blogging experiment. 

     So anyways, I think I'll start off by telling you a bit about myself. I'm a ballet dancer in training (hence the common lack of time), and I hope to one day soon be good enough to get into a company. I never really thought of myself as artsy or crafty but not too long ago I was thinking to myself "You know, I'm actually a very artsy person". I love all sorts of thing like knitting, crochet, baking, cooking, nutrition, beading, the environment; I've recently developed a thing for food animal cruelty which I guess I'll probably be ranting on about in the next few weeks. I also love poetry, dance (obviously), chickens, the word rumpus (for those of you who don't know, the definition is pretty much just a big racket, or disturbance; something one might find their children doing) and European accents. They're the best. Well, I basically love everything about Europe. When I retire I want to live in a nice beautiful country home in Ireland, complete with an apple orchard and beautiful garden with little gazebos and a pond with little ducks swimming around. I want to sit and eat cheese and salamis on crackers from humanely treated and slaughtered animals. I'll have a pet sheep dog and my little grand children will come to visit me and my husband. Haha, sounds like quite the dream huh? Well, we can always hope.

     Now I bet you're wondering, what is this crazy lady who seems to talk about everything and nothing going to write about in her blog? Well, I will tell you. I don't like being restricted to just talking about one thing; I like to open up to the people I talk to. Considering that, I'll probably be talking about knitting and crocheting, I'll probably give you guys a bunch of patterns and HOW TOs to have fun with as that's what I love to do. I'll probably just include whatever crafty thing I happen to be trying, making soap or even painting moustaches on cups. I'll definitely throw out a bunch of awesome low calorie recipes, maybe some baked goods. You'll probably happen upon me talking about the mistreatment of food industry animals, or maybe fair trade coffee and the poor children in Africa making cocoa. Maybe I'll throw in a few poems I write, or perhaps I'll be too shy ;) either way, I think you'll find your fill throughout the next month or so, so long as we share some of the same interests.

     In any event, I think that'll be it for my first post. I should go to bed cause I've got ballet tomorrow as is the usual (as you will soon come to see if you continue reading my posts). Bye for now guys :)

     -Morgan